Copyright piracy on the university campus: Trends and lessons from the software and music industries

Abstract In a 1996–7 survey of students at three public universities and one private liberal arts college, Chiang and Assane (2002) found that 53 per cent of the sample admitted to software piracy. Though this is a staggering percentage, over the past five years the public focus on copyright piracy among young technology savvy users, particularly university students, has shifted from software to music piracy via file sharing and CD reproduction. This paper studies the characteristics of these industries along with recent technological advances affecting them. We analyze how economic incentives to reduce piracy on the university campus have been successful for the software indus‐ try, and how the lack of such incentives in the music industry has caused a larger piracy issue today. Based on these findings, we discuss possible solutions to reducing music piracy on the university campus.